Yalan Dünya

This series was a total disappointment for me when I compare it to Avrupa Yakasi which was much better, especially. All characters are so artificial and jokes don't have any logical basis. Especially Orcun character is so embarrassing and is not funny at all. I have watched (actually have been forced to watch) most of it and I think that this series is a total waste of time. It is not worth watching and if it is translated to another language, I don't think anything will change. Maybe I am being too mature and not being able to comprehend the jokes of the new generation even though I am 20. Turkish TV deserves much better stories to be broadcast. People should not kill their time on this...

Yalan Dunya is the most realistic and funny series you will ever see on Turkish TV's. Gulse Birsel is a brilliant author, screen-writer, and enough of an actress. She observes people and events in real life then uses them in the scenario of the series to make us laugh. Unlike all other Turkish series and shows, Yalan Dunya does not contain any Islamic elements. Other series in Turkish networks makes Islamic propaganda, like any character who does not act according to Islamic rules always end up in worst situations possible. Not everybody in this country is Muslim, even so, it is rubbish anyway. People watch TV to have fun, not for religious teachings. Thanks to Gulse's being open-minded and modern woman of today's, she knows how a TV series should be.

Characters are well played in the series and cast choice is awesome. Ten or so major characters are created, and every one of them important like they are all in lead role, because there is no classic lead role concept in this show. All those characters have same screen time and same deep characteristics.

Gulse Birsel also published five books so far, I would recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy things from a different view of point. I am so proud of her, I wish there were more people like her in Turkey.

Big disappointment. There is a huge economic crisis in Turkey, if you are not a boss or a big tradesman, you are probably experiencing this crisis to your core. However, it was not like this about 5-10 years ago. There was such a thing as average income. You could somehow sustain your life. It was possible to be middle class by working. And the youth of today were a bit childish back then. Those were good times. You could buy a car by working, for example, without taking out a loan. Now, this situation seems quite impossible. Here is a series that was broadcasted at that time, Yalan Dünya. The second of Gülse Birsel's trilogy. They praised this woman, they praised her series left and right, I said, let's watch it. And I could only watch it halfway through. It is the first series I have left halfway since I started writing reviews on this site. Think about it, I finished Fringe even though I was really bored, but I couldn't stand this series. It was such a waste of time.

The subject of Yalan Dünya is a rich but relatively conservative family and the cultural clash of the not so rich young actors who move in with them. Mr. Sehmuz is a conservative family man. He lives according to religious and national traditions and customs. Mrs. Servet is the same way, but sometimes he adopts "funny" characteristics for fun. He is addicted to bleach and knows Italian. Oh, and he is also a singer. For example, why doesn't Mr. Sehmuz have such characteristics? Because the writer cannot continue the story as he wants and instead of looking for logic to create humor/randomness, he thinks he can make people laugh by throwing things around. The character called Riza is a criticism of the "aimless son of a rich family". A successful character is so repulsive that I had to skip his scenes. For example, this character is well-written and really annoying and meaningless. But a little too meaningless. In other words, Riza comes and goes like this. He never changes throughout the series. Why should I have to watch the stupid scenes of the same stupid character? Let him wise up and change, so I can watch him too. I have watched 35 episodes now and I can guess everything Riza will say and do. Selahattin is also a man who haunts Sehmuz's company as his son-in-law. He got bored with his wife and found a singer mistress. He is a dishonorable person with an accent, he doesn't have many qualities. His wife Gulseren is a conservative person like her mother. She doesn't have many special qualities like status or anything. Since she doesn't get any attention from her husband, she loves her son very much and dedicates her life to him. Her son Orcun is a somewhat modern character who represents the audience but is also empty. Selehattin's brother Ahmet is the link between the two families. Ahmet is also an actor but despite being very talented, he is never cared about by the directors because he doesn't talk much. He is not a dishonorable person, in fact he is the most sensible character in the series. Here, for example, he criticized the industry by saying that what is important is not acting but talking, wow, who would have thought, he is really incredibly good. Deniz is someone who has been making a living by acting for a long time but this time he got lucky and got a leading role. But as you can see, this is it. When I talk about Deniz, I can't tell you anything other than what happened to him because he has no character. He is a standard person. He occasionally makes remarks to the characters at the level of Müge Anli. Who would have thought? Bora is Deniz's brother. He plays the role of a doctor to keep the house. Although he is a bit more hedonistic, we can see how much he cares about his friends and sister when the time comes. He is the favorite character of the audience anyway. Emir is a famous actor. His way of speaking and thinking is entertaining. I think Emir is the only quality and non-boring sit-com character in the series, but even he gets boring after a while. While Reis is a furniture maker at first, he is promoted to a higher position with his headstrong character. He is a man from the Black Sea region. Tülay is Selehattin's mistress. She is very cheerful but also naive. She is an independent woman who sometimes gets carried away but unfortunately she is also very loyal to Selehattin. Tülay is the sweetest character in the series. I hope good things happen to her for the rest. Çagatay has a beautiful voice and a handsome actor who harasses everyone. I mean, I will literally applaud those who come to this series and say that it is criticizing the sector. Director Tufan is probably the director who tried to cheapen everything in his previous series. Zerrin Tülay's best friend. He is usually the type who throws the truth in people's faces, but he is neither funny nor annoying, in other words, he is an emptiness. If Zerrin was an emptiness instead, nothing would change in the series. Açilay is a very good actress, and her acting is also very good. She is a bit of an iconic character. One of my favorite characters.

You saw how much I loved the characters. Some of them are like 2 sentences long. Just because you read about these characters, you can count as having watched the series because this is all it is. Putting so many characters together, filling them all with empty spaces, constantly crying and making poor quality criticisms was enough to make it the worst Turkish series I have ever watched. And it is also the first series I left half-done. Nothing can really be this bad. There is a scene where Bora and Açilay have to leave to hang out with different people. They fight and stuff. Then Bora says that he cheated on Açilay. Servet and Gülseren say "nothing will happen, he is a man" and stuff. No matter what Bora says, they don't accept it as a reason for divorce. Then, when Bora asks for a marriage contract, both of them are offended that the man wants to separate his property and assets and they tell Açilay to get a divorce. Now, for example, this is a great criticism of society for the person who wrote it. The person who wrote it thinks he is very smart and stuff. We cried while watching this, we all thought about it and stuff. This is definitely one of the worst scenes on Turkish television. This is not how criticism is done. If you criticize like you are poking a blind eye, you have not told anyone anything. In other words, I wish this scene had not happened and it had written something directly on the screen: Look, in the conservative Turkish society, cheating is considered normal for men, while wanting to separate their property is seen as a reason for separation... What a shame," I swear it would have been more effective. At least we would not have wasted time. In other words, seeing such stupid events and writing a "critical" scene thinking that you were "reading society" was really the last straw. This is not how criticism is done. Criticism is done subtly. Messages are given like this. You work on the subject slowly. Maybe you put a final point so that everything is understood, maybe you don't. But if you are poking a blind eye like this, it means there is something wrong with your writing style. My article right before this was "The Children of Pal Street." For example, if the scriptwriter of this series had written this book, the children would have said to each other: "Wars are so bad, people are dying, I wish there were no wars." And the book would have ended. You can create the thing criticized and show its results, you can live through it. But criticism doesn't seem that way. For example, The Boys on Paul Street is a children's story first and foremost. Criticism is subtext. It gives you the evil of war without you realizing it. The Great Gatsby and Scarface are criticisms of the American Dream, but you wouldn't call them that at first glance. Doesn't this scriptwriter know this? He knows, but it doesn't suit him. It's nothing but nonsense.

The images of the series are already set son set, I mean I loved it now go out and shoot it here what will happen 3 5 scenes those artificial streets were so much love I can't describe it. Fortunately the costumes and clothes are nice. They make costume costumes and since a series was shot in the series they weren't bad there either. I couldn't find any music. There is only one credit and I mean what can I say if you claim it is a good series and don't even have any iconic music except the credits.

I don't blame the actors at all, they generally acted well. Even while playing such shallow characters, they were able to add some spirit. The character of Riza played very dull, I don't understand why. I mean, when we didn't want a role in high school theater, we would pretend, and he acted like he couldn't act, just like him. The acting of characters like Açilay and Emir is good. Servet is also good. Orçun is not bad. Tülay is great. That's it. Well done to the actors, but in the afterlife, it would be right if they got hold of the scriptwriter.

Don't watch it, guys. If you are really curious, read the paragraph where I describe the characters. If that's not enough, watch about 10 episodes, after 10 they are all the same. It will seriously eat up your time. There are many other good Turkish series, go watch them. Unfortunately, I think it's the first series I gave a score below average.

I enjoy watching this series. The scriptwriter must be very smart. Also, the actors play very well. It's a series I love very much. The script is written cleverly. It reflected the world of the actors very well. It showed the conflict of eastern and western culture very well.

The show suffers from the usual shortcoming of Turkish shows that it needs to be long in order to have many advertisement breaks. the dialog and the scenes are then stretched and there are repeats. however, I'm pretty sure Gulse Birsel (writer and one of the actresses) is as unhappy about this as the audience. anyways.. overall, it is a very rich show with lots of 'typical' characters of a well known neighborhood of Istanbul. well of course, it is a comedy and all the typicality is pushed to the extreme and it becomes absurd and hilariously funny from time to time. the plot is about the clash of a group of artists with a rich but shallow family as they become the family's tenants. these artist characters all play in the same TV show as part of the scenario of Yalan Dunya and thus we also watch this other show as they act it. This show-in-show concept brilliantly makes fun of many aspects of some very popular but low quality TV shows in Turkey in not so subtle ways...